BOSTON — Dwight Howard, torn labrum and all, slapped on his Los Angeles Lakers uniform here at TD Garden on Thursday and took the floor, putting to rest the back-and-forth between him and Kobe Bryant—and just about anyone else who wanted to pile on—over the lack of toughness Howard was showing by remaining on the sideline when his team desperately needs him.

Alas, an LA season that now carries with it a razor-thin margin of error took another downward turn, as the Lakers were drubbed by the Boston Celtics 116-95. That ended a three-game winning streak that had brought a glimmer of hope to a moribund year.

Howard took the floor just after the Lakers announced publicly what they had already known privately—the team’s other big man, Pau Gasol, would be out for at least six weeks because of a torn plantar fascia from the end of Monday's win over the Brooklyn Nets.

Put the pieces together and the reality for the Lakers becomes increasingly grim. There’s no trading Gasol now. They will sink or swim with this group of players as it stands. And judging by the way things shaped up in the first game since Howard was nudged into playing with the bum shoulder, they’ve already hit the iceberg and are taking on water.

After the game, Bryant was asked for his reaction to the news that Howard would play. “Cool,” Bryant said. Bryant also complained that his comments about Howard were, “overblown,” and that suggestions he needed to play with Gasol out were, “nothing groundbreaking.”

Howard’s numbers on the night: nine points, nine rebounds, six fouls, four turnovers. Those are ugly, but in the context of the way the rest of the Lakers played, it was par for the course. The Lakers shot 41.4 percent from the field and had just 16 assists against 12 turnovers.

All too often their offense, which had been moving the ball so impressively in the past two weeks, came down to Bryant forcing up tough shots against dogged defender Courtney Lee. The Celtics had 22 fast-break points to just four for the Lakers.

Everyone is entitled to a bad game, of course, and there is no shame in losing to the Celtics, who have now won six in a row since point guard Rajon Rondo was lost for the year. But considering the way the week has gone, the Lakers needed a better showing than this, needed to show some resilience in the face of adversity, self-inflicted though it was. Howard needed a better showing than this, needed to show he is not the softie he’s been made out to be.

Howard flatly denied that he felt pressure to return tonight. Asked how he felt about people questioning his toughness, Howard said, “People can say what they want to say. None of these people are playing.”

Maybe so. But still, there is a sense with Howard that he still needs to show Bryant something. It seems many moons ago that the trade for Howard was first made, a deal that caused Bryant to say that he would play just a couple more years and then hand over the franchise reins to Howard. Through the many dramas that have unfolded in Lakerland this year—the Howard back rehab, the winless preseason, the Steve Nash injury, the firing of Mike Brown, the flirtation with Phil Jackson, the Mike D’Antoni struggle, the front-office follies, the D’Antoni-Gasol beef—the one that matters most is the way the Bryant-Howard relationship has, or hasn’t, come together.

Bryant came into the year thinking he would groom Howard to take over the Lakers, and that he would be able to walk away with the team in good hands. Everything that has happened between the two has to be put into that context. That includes the latest Bryant-Howard run-in, with Bryant pushing Howard to play in this game despite the shoulder problem, scolding him on the necessity for a franchise player to play through pain. This was emphasized, in part, by the giant ice pack Bryant wore on his elbow, a reminder that he is playing through tendinitis.

There have been two problems with the notion of Bryant getting Howard to be the Man in LA. First, in trying to secure the shape of the team over the long term, Bryant and the Lakers find themselves in a mad scramble, a desperate attempt to rescue the current season before it is too late. Second, there is the stark reality that has thrown the future of the team into question—it might be that Howard simply can’t be the Man, no matter how Bryant cajoles him into it.

For now, the Lakers need to figure out whether this season can be salvaged. But in the big picture, what the team will look like when Bryant eventually hangs up his high tops, is very much in doubt. That was on display Thursday.